Edwin allen



(No Model.)

- E. ALLEN.

SPOOL FEEDER.

INVENEOR,

A Uwrrnn dramas PATENT rerun.

EDWIN ALLEN, OF NORWVICH, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOE TO THE ALLEN SPOOL AND PRINTING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

SPOOL FEEDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 299,047, dated May 20, 1884-.

Application filed October 5, 1883.

per having revolving agitators, said form of feeder without my present improvements being described in detail in a previous application, filed August 8, 1883, Serial No. 103,202, for a patent for a device for feeding braidrolls and other disks in which the length is less than the diameter. By utilizing parts of said braid-roll feeder and adding my new improvements I am able to convert said braidroll feeder into a perfect spool-feeder.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of afeederembodying my improvements, parts of the supporting frame and rim which carries my agitators being cut away to show more clearly the arrangement of the feeder parts. Fig. 2 is a View of the same frhm the rear or right-hand side, as shown in Fig. 1, but without my device for kickingwedged spool blanks out of the revolving guides. The back side of the receiver is cut away to expose the gutters which guide said spool-blanks into the feed-troughs, one of the pieces It being also cut away to show the provision made for adjusting and regulating the width of said gutters. Fig. 3 is a detached View, somewhat enlarged, of a part of one of the agitator-arms having my spool-feeder attachment, and also shows the relative positions of the pieces h and conducting-trough c. Fig. 4: shows the general form of the spool-blanks which my device is intended to feed.

The receiver or hopper into which the spoolblanks are poured in bulk is made in two parts, B B, substantially as shown in Fig. 1, and supported by a suitable frame, A, the part B being secured rigidly to an upward extension (No model.)

of said frame, and having its top rolled in to prevent the blanks from working up on the inside of B, the rolled-in part tending to turn said blanks back again into the receiver when they become piled too high. Part B is supported by trunnions in bearings in frame A, as at F, held in place by a set-screw or other suitable means, and does not revolve.

v The lower or bottom side of B is inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees, or thereabout, to assist in working the blanks toward the troughs e, which troughs are provided to conduct said blanks to a printing or shaping machine on which the feeder rests when in use. trunnions which support the receiver B are arranged a driving-pulley, C, and also revolving hubs with a series of radiating spokes supporting rims E, said rims carrying with them as they revolve one or more agitatorarms, G, with lugs b, which assist in moving the spool-blanks into position near the entrance to the troughs e. The agitatorarms G also carry semicircular guides c, which bring the blanks into line to enter the feed-troughs endwise, said semicircular guides forming one of the important features of my present im provement.

My two-part receiver is separated by a cir eular groove whose center is in the trunnions which support B, the width of said groove being sufficient to allow the agitator-arms to pass around, but not wide enough for the spoolblanks to drop through. It will be noticed that the agitators pass upward through the receiver near its center, and then around out side of part B, instead of revolving continually inside of the receiver, as is the case with most of the feeders in common use.

To assist in adjusting the blanks and holding them in line with the entrance to the troughs e, I provide a series of flat pieces, h, of any suitable material, on the inner side of the inclined bottom of B, held by screws 9, passing upward through slots f in B and into h. The open space between said pieces as they are secured to B forms a guide or gutter, 2', leading directly into the mouth of trough 6, so that the blanks K, when arranged lengthwise of said gutter, will naturally slide down into said troughs.

On the from which it works downward into 0.

inside diameter of the conducting-troughs e is blanks and causing them to drop into the gutters z, I provide one or more small spurs, m, in the semicircular guides 0. These spurs, when a blank is nearly in line with the gutter, engage the end which is out of line and gradually move it until it drops into the gutter, The

but little more than the diameter of the spoolblanks, so that said blanks must enter, said troughs endwise. Much trouble has been experienced in automatically feeding blanks in which the length and diameter are the same; but in my new device it will be evident that, owing to the circular form of the conductingtroughs e, such blanks could not enter if brought to said troughs in any other position than endwise. The semicircular pieces 0 and spurs m, as they pass upward through the mass of blanks, either move said blanks into line with the gutters c or push them aside to make room for other blanks.

In order to feed blanks of various sizes, I have constructed the conducting-troughs e in two parts, 6 and e, as in Fig. 2, secured to gether by screws or bolts passing through lugs d. To feed blanks of a greater diameter, 6' and e are spread apart until said blanks will easily slip endwise into the trough or pipe thus formed. The blanks, as the semicircular piecesc revolve, sometimes become wedged in said pieces 0, an d would be carried upward and outside of the receiver with a liability to cause serious injury to the other mechanism if not removed. To dispose of such wedged blanks, I have provided a kicker, (so called,) pivoted at n in B, having an arm extending toward the trunnion F, to engage pins on the rim E, and an arm, t, extending upward, having pivoted to its free end a piece, H, which, as the arm 0 is operated by pin 70, has a reciprocating movement. As the end of arm 0 leaves pin it, a spring, 8, brings a and t back to their normal positions, throwing piece H violently forward. The pins is should be so located in the rotating rim E that the piece H may act at the instant that the wedged blank is in its way, the piece H striking said blank with sufficient force to dislodge it, allowing it to fall back into the receiver, leaving the semicircular pieces free to make their next. round.

The pieces cshould be of such length that as a blank drops into the gutter i sufficient time will elapse before the rear end of 0 passes to allow said blank to slide downward into position to enter trough e. If said pieces 0 were not of suflicient length, the mass of blanks would drop in behind a before the blank in the gutter could slide down into place. 7

Kin the several figures represents the spoolblanks to be fed.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and wish to secure by Letters Patent- 1. As a means for automatically feeding spool-blanks or similar articles in which the length is equal to or greater than the diameter, and in combination with a fixed two-part receiver, B 13, supported substantially as shown and described, one or more conducting-pipes, e, pieces h, having means for lateral adjustment to provide gutters i, and a system of agitators which pass upward through the mass of blanks ancLdownward on the outside of said receiver, as and for the purpose specified.

2. In combination with the two-part receiver, adjustable gutter-pieces h, and rotating agitators, one or more conducting-troughs, 6, so made and secured that they may be adjusted or spread apart for the purpose of conducting blanks of different diameters, as hereinbefore described.

3. In combination with the two-part receiver, adjustable gutter-pieces, one or more adjustable conducting'troughs, and the rotating agitator-arms, one or more semicircular pieces, 0, so located in line with said gutters and conducting-troughs that they tend to move said blanks and lay them lengthwise in the gutters in proper position to enter the troughs e, as described.

4. The combination of the supporting frame, twopart receiver, gutters, conductingtroughs, the revolving rim E, carrying lugs b and semicircular pieces 0, and the spurs m, located at any practical point in pieces 0, for the purpose of turning such blanks as are nearly in line with the gutters, as described.

5. In combination with the two-parfi'receiver and rotating rim E, carrying semicircular pieces 0, the kicking or dislodging device herein described, consisting of a rocker-arm pivoted in 13', having an arm, 0, to engage pins 75, an upward extension, 13, having pivoted in its free end the reciprocating piece H, and a spring, .9, said spring being secured to the rocker-arm below its pivotal-point, the other end being secured to B, as and for the purpose specified.

EDWIN ALLEN. 'Witnesses:

FRANK H. ALLEN, T. A. ROBINSON. 

